BOSTON — After Deron Williams and Jason Terry finished off a victory in a 3-point shooting competition following Wednesday’s morning shootaround, the two celebrated at midcourt.

The dour and often frustrated look Williams has often worn sitting on the sidelines and watching during the first few weeks of Nets training camp was long gone.

Instead, it has been replaced by one of satisfaction, as Williams finally progressed to the point where he can begin to do more work with his teammates without any setbacks or complications.

“It was good,” Williams said Wednesday before the Nets preseason game with the Celtics at TD Garden. “It felt good [Wednesday]. I’m going to practice [Thursday in Miami], do some more [Thursday], hopefully do some full-court stuff and go from there.”

It was an important day for Williams and the Nets, as all sides involved liked what they saw in a 20-minute, 5-on-5 half-court portion of practice Tuesday that included contact— his first appearance in such a setting so far this season. Williams made it through without incident, and the entire team appeared buoyed by the good news.

“He’s making progress,” Nets coach Jason Kidd said. “He felt fine [Wednesday]. He made it through shootaround. … We’ll see how he feels [Thursday].”

The Nets have been exceedingly cautious with Williams over the first three weeks of training camp due to his sprained ankle — suffered in a workout in Utah early last month — to the point where it has seemed at times as if Williams will not be on the floor when the Nets open the season next week in Cleveland.

“It’s going to be tough to get back for that first game, just because I haven’t done much,” Williams said. “We’ve got four days after that last Miami game [Friday], so I’m going to try to play some minutes in the Miami game.

“But I don’t know if that’s going to happen.”

Even as Williams has sat and watched the rest of the starting five — with Shaun Livingston standing in for him — and seen how many open shots his teammates have gotten thanks to some crisp ball movement, he is looking forward to taking advantage of it whenever he finally gets the green light to rejoin them in a game.

“That’s what we pride ourselves on this year, getting open looks, making the easy passes, making the extra passes,” Williams said. “There’s going to be a lot of open shots. We have to be able to make them.”

Williams struggled with his shot, and particularly his 3-point shooting, during his first season and a half with the Nets, shooting under 35 percent from behind the arc both seasons after injuring his wrist before being traded to the Nets by the Jazz in 2011. But he boosted that percentage to 37.5 percent last season, and thinks it will only go up this season, thanks to the many weapons the Nets have surrounded him with.

“I feel like I’ve always been a pretty good shooter,” he said. “I had two years where I had a wrist with fragments all in it, so that’s why I [stunk]. Last year I started off the season with my ankle, so I think when I’m healthy I think my jumper is definitely fine, and I think I’m going to get a lot of open looks on this team with the guys we’ve got.

“I’ve definitely been shooting a lot of jumpers — it’s really jumpers and lifting weights. I’m strong and I can shoot right now.”

And the Nets hope he’ll soon be able to play without restrictions as well.